Review: The Mercury Fountain

Title: The Mercury Fountain

Author: Eliza Factor

Publisher: Akashic Books

Publication Date: February 28, 2012

Reviewer: Annie

Summary: (From Amazon) Set in a remote stretch of desert near the border of west Texas and Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century, this story follows the pursuits of Owen Scraperton as he struggles to establish Pristina, a utopian community based on mercury mining that aims to resolve the great questions of labor and race. As age, love, and experience cause Owen to modify his original vision, his fiercely idealistic daughter Victoria remains true to Pristina's founding principles—setting them up for a major conflict that captures the imagination of the entire town. The Mercury Fountain combines realistic modern writing with elements from American and Greco-Roman mythology, taking its cue from Mercury, the most slippery and mischievous of gods, who rules over science, commerce, eloquence, and thievery.

Review: This was not the book I expected when I read the blurb on the early reviewers page. I am a huge dystopian/utopian society fan, but I think most of those sorts of books I read are in the young adult genre and therefore I wasn’t prepared for such a heavy book. This is not an easy quick read; in fact, I will be reading it again to get the full idea of all that happened. By the time I got to the end I finally had in my mind who everyone was and how the town fit together and I just felt like I had missed so much while reading the rest of the book and trying to place where all the characters were. I did really enjoy this book, it is wonderfully written and the characters are quite interesting and unique. As long as you don’t go into this thinking it’s going to be a light, easy read (like I did) you will enjoy this book. I can see it being a great book to discuss in a book club or similar situation. And it really is just a great piece of literature, I highly recommend it!

~ Annie